


Beautiful Now

by wanderingalonelypath



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Cullen is mentioned but never seen, F!Trevelyan x Dorian is PLATONIC, F/M, M/M, Polyamory, Polyamory discussion, pre-polyamory, sad drinking turned happy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-04-25
Packaged: 2020-01-31 14:35:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18593260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wanderingalonelypath/pseuds/wanderingalonelypath
Summary: Dorian is drunk and hopeful, Cullen is mentioned, and Elena just wants her best friend and her boyfriend to get together and be happy.Or, Dorian and Elena both want Cullen, and he wants both of them. So why not?





	Beautiful Now

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this at 3am a year ago, and now I feel like y'all should see it. Enjoy!

It was utterly preposterous. That’s what Dorian kept telling himself, to ignore the fact that he felt so attracted to the idea.

The Inquisitor was a strange woman; he would go so far as to say she was the strangest woman he had ever met. She was also one of the sharpest, most delightful women he had ever met, for a southron mage. The Circle had done nothing to dim her wit or her spirit, he soon found out in his friendship with her. She was quickly becoming one of the few people he trusted, one of the only people he could spend hours with and not find himself bored. Not only was she a wonderful friend, she was an inspiring leader. She was turning the Inquisition into something he was proud to be a part of. Something he knew the Magisterium must despise back home, which only made him more gleeful.

She stood by him when his father….He was touched enough that she pulled no deceit when his father sent a letter to Mother Giselle. Not only did she tell him the truth, she listened, she came with him, she stood up to his father for him. When his throat closed, staring at the man he had aspired to be his entire life, the man whose image was poisoned the night he went from ‘father’ to ‘hypocrite’ she was there. She was furious, and she was there.

And she agreed to go drinking with him.

He hadn’t expected her to take him up on the offer. He made it in misery, fully intending to find the bottom of a bottle alone, like he usually did, but she smiled a smile that was nearly synthetic and told him she had better liquor in her quarters.

So they closed the balcony doors on the winter winds, stoked the fire, and he raided her own personal wine cellar (he highly doubted she drunk enough to deserve one, but he wasn’t ungrateful enough to point it out) and sat leaning against her bed, passing the bottle between them. Dorian would be disgusted at his own behavior, but he felt a bit raw and couldn’t bring himself to care about swapping spit with the woman he was beginning to love dearly.

(And, Maker, if that wasn’t a terrifying thought).

They had finished a bottle before she got up, retrieved a folded letter from her desk, and handed it to him silently while opening another. It seemed she had received her own letter of disappointment, dated a fortnight ago, meaning it must have just arrived before their trip. Dorian didn’t bother to read the entire thing, as he could ascertain the purpose from the first three lines alone.

“Elena,  
Despite the position you have been blessed with by the Maker himself, you continue to exhibit heretical tendencies and shame this family. You were born with the stain of magic…”

And he had to stop, lest he light the paper on fire. Stain, they said, as if her Maker-given gifts were something unseemly.

“Do you want to talk?” He asked instead, carefully setting the paper aside. She laughed, and empty, bitter thing.

“Not about that.” She took another drink of the bottle, an Antivan red, and passed it back to him. “You should have seen Cullen’s face when I showed it to him. He looked as if he wanted to get on the next boat to Ostwick to give them a piece of his mind.”

He chuckled at that, imagining her Commander’s face. The two of them were a surprise, but he supposed they weren’t at the same time. The escaped circle mage-now apostate and the former Templar. Varric will have no shortage of tales to spin after this was all over. He was happy for them, if a bit envious of his dear friend. His many chess matches with the Commander had given him a bit of insight into what she must receive every night, and he did have such a delicious blush to his face when he got embarrassed…..

“You fancy him.”

The bottle froze halfway to his lips, as did his heart in his chest. ‘Lie’, his bones told him. ‘Don’t ruin the only good thing you have left.’

“Well, he is quite strapping, but I believe he’s quite smitten with you, darling. I doubt he has eyes for anything but those legs of yours.” A bit tasteless, not up to his usual talent, and the accompanying grin felt wooden.

Elena’s laugh was much warmer. “He loves me, Dorian, I know that. But I would be a fool to not see that he cares for you as well.”

Dorian knew he hadn’t drunk nearly enough for the world to be spinning, and yet it was. He kept his gaze firmly on the crackling fire in front of him, desperate to not see the inevitable look of betrayal on her face. The Commander, fancying him? Preposterous. She was only saying this to trick him into admitting his own attraction, so she could rage and send him back to Tevinter. It would be what he deserved.

And yet…

The Commander was a shy man, that much was obvious from the moment they met. His skill at chess was surprising, and their weekly matches gave Dorian a glimpse into the man behind the mane, as it were. He found someone he could only compare to a hero from a trashy romance novel. Strong, brave, kind, alarmingly clever. And he would be lying if he said he never imagined what he would look like under all that armor, what muscles he must have from wearing it all day long….  
Dorian's face was flushed, and he decided that he had too much drink for the evening.

Anyway, his attractions didn’t matter. Elena and Cullen were two chapters from marriage and happily-ever-after. He wouldn’t be cruel enough to ruin that with his own messy emotions.

He was roused from his musings by a hand on his shoulder, and he turned to see Elena, closer than she was before, looking far too sober for his liking. “He cares about you, Dorian. I see how he acts when returning from your chess matches. He’s like a blushing schoolgirl. I would know; he was like that before the two of us got together.”

He chuckled. Everyone in Skyhold knew when the two of them were courting; Cullen was rarely seen without a blush for weeks. But it still didn’t matter. “Why are you telling me this, Elena? You won this particular fight, not that I even knew it was a fight.” He muttered, sounding more vulnerable than he was comfortable with.

“Maker, Dorian,” Elena giggled, “this isn’t a competition. I’m willing to share.”

He felt like every thought in his head came to shuddering stop. Did Elena Trevelyan, Herald of Andraste, Leader of the Inquisition, just offer to share the man she loved with him?

The situation was so ridiculous that he couldn’t stop himself from laughing.

“My dear, I do believe you’re drunk.” He commented, leaning his head back. Elena didn’t laugh, but she smiled brightly at him.

“I might be, but that doesn’t mean I’m not being serious.”

Firelight bounced off of her eyes when she looked at him, shining iridescent green. Dorian wasn’t the best at reading people, but she didn’t look like she was lying. It unsettled him. It excited him. It rather made him feel like he was about to be sick. Before he knew it he had staggered to his feet, whirling to stare down at his friend.

“What are...you mean….you want to share your dear Commander? With me?” He felt like he needed to pace, so he did, as quickly as his drunken brain would allow him on the rug in front of the fire.

Elena only stared at him with an amused, if fond, grin. “Why not? He loves me, he could grow to love you if you gave him a chance, and you’re my best friend. If I was to be in this sort of situation with anybody, I’d rather it be with you.”

Dorian felt like he did the first time he discovered necromancy. Disbelieving it could be real, daring to hope that he could have it. “The three of us...how would that even work? With three people? Would we all?” He trailed off, and Elena sprung up as quickly as she could.  
“No, no, it's not like we would all be having sex. I know you don’t like woman and I would never force you to...no. Just,” She grabbed his wrist, forcing him to sit on the front edge of the bed with her.

“Your my dearest friend, and I love you. I mean, we share a bedroll whenever we travel, and we sleep together whenever Cullen isn’t here. We cuddle all the time when we’re around each other. We’re already….platonically intimate, I suppose you could say.” She shrugged.” The only difference is that you would also be doing romantic things with Cullen.” She waved her hand vaguely, as if she couldn’t quite figure out how to form the words. Eventually, she stopped struggling, falling onto her back.

Dorian sat in stunned silence before joining her.

“You would be alright with someone else being with your love? Kissing them, holding them, having sex with them?” He could scarcely imagine it. Three people? Or rather, one person in love with two people? He had no idea how it could work without numerous problems.

Elena shrugged, turning to look at him.

“He wouldn’t love me any less, that I know. He would just love another person, in addition to me. Like I said,” She reached down and twined their fingers together. “I don’t mind if it’s you. I know you won’t try to steal him from me or anything. Would you be alright with...sharing him with me?”

He let out a hard breath. “I...honestly don’t know. I’ve never been in a relationship before, let alone one with two people.”

She laughed. “It is strange to think about, isn’t it? But, listen, just picture it.” She shifted closer, laying her head on his shoulder, gesturing up to the ceiling with her free hand as if he would see what she was thinking of.

“A house, a white picket fence, a mabari, a few kids. I guess it’ll be weird for them to have two dads and a mom but,“ She shrugged. “They’ll get used to it. At night, the three of us will all curl up in the same bed, and he’d kiss us both good night. We’d be there for the nightmares, all three of us.” Her voice seemed to catch. “We’d have a home filled with love.”

Dorian realized all at once that this wasn’t the first time she had thought of it. He couldn’t deny that the idea was attractive. He wanted Cullen (and when had he started calling him Cullen?) more than what was wise, but he also couldn’t picture his life without Elena, now. He knew that, whatever she decided to do after the Inquisition disbanded, he would follow her until she ordered him away. His life would be incomplete without her.

It seemed like an idyllic dream. Fantastical. Impossible.

And yet….

“Have you spoken to Cullen about this?” He asked, because he was the vital puzzle piece in this whole design. This foolish design that he was stupid enough to hope for because he was drunk enough to believe it would work.

Elena shook her head, hair scraping against his cheek. “I thought I’d ask you first, and we could approach him together. Though we might overwhelm him.” Dorian chuckled. He couldn’t help but feel sorry for the poor man; no matter how they went about it, they would ambush him.

“I think,” He began slowly, staring at the ceiling as she turned to look at him. “That we are both a bit too drunk to be seriously discussing this.” He felt her deflate next to him, so he hurried on. “But if you still want this when we’re both sober, then….” He turned fully on his side so they were both facing each other. He felt the word catch itself in his throat. A bitter part of him, deep down, that always told him he didn’t deserve nice things tried to hold onto it. It sunk its claws in and Dorian didn’t know if it was the alcohol or the love he had for Elena Trevelyan, but he still managed to say it. “Yes.”

She squealed loudly, throwing her arms around him and planting a loud kiss on his cheek. He couldn’t help but be swept up in her joy, looping his arms around her in return.

If there was anything Elena had taught him in his time knowing her, is that hope wasn’t always a terrible thing.


End file.
